A view of the Lujiazui area in Shanghai. [Photo/VCG]

Forum: Global scientists rank Shanghai as fourth ideal city

President Xi Jinping has said that China is willing to work with all nations to create an open, fair, impartial and nondiscriminatory environment for the development of science and technology.

Xi made the remark in a congratulatory letter sent to the 2023 Pujiang Innovation Forum, which opened on Sept 10 in Shanghai.

In the letter, he said that China will firmly pursue a mutually beneficial and win-win strategy of opening up and continue to expand high-level opening-up.

Xi said the country is ready to continue to promote international scientific and technological exchanges and cooperation with a more open mind and a broader range of measures, and build a globally competitive open innovation ecosystem.

"It is hoped that the Pujiang Innovation Forum will adhere to the theme of innovation, inspire innovative ideas, spread innovative thoughts, augment innovative spirits, and make new contributions to advancing international scientific and technological cooperation and to enhancing the common well-being of humankind," he said.

The forum, which is themed "Open Innovation Ecosystem: Innovation for Global Connectivity", is cosponsored by the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Shanghai municipal government, and runs through Monday. This year's country of honor is Brazil and the province of honor is Hubei.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva also sent a congratulatory letter to the forum, in which he said this year's theme requires "us to deepen cooperation on the myriad possibilities offered by the rapidly developing scientific and technological advancement and open ecosystems".

Lula said he sees great potential in the partnerships between Brazilian and Chinese science parks and technology companies to facilitate more investment and increase productivity for the two nations.

Chen Jining, Party chief of Shanghai, said that after years of efforts, the city is making a qualitative leap in its building of an international science and technology innovation center.

This year's Ideal City report, which was released on Saturday on the margins of the forum, ranks Shanghai in fourth place, following Singapore, Shenzhen and Boston, for its high comprehensive performance in categories of education, talent and science and technology. The report follows a survey of high-end scientists in 20 global innovation centers.

A separate report released on Saturday at the Women Scientists Summit, held on the sidelines of the forum, showed that the number of female researchers in Shanghai increased from 70,300 in 2016 to 98,300 in 2021. They account for 28.49 percent of the city's total number of researchers.

Zhao Chunling, executive deputy chief designer of wide-body passenger aircraft with Commercial Aircraft Corp of China, is one of Shanghai's top female researchers.

According to Zhao, China's first self-developed narrow-body jet, the C919, has conducted 522 hours of commercial operation and safely carried 25,448 passengers as of the end of August. A domestically developed regional passenger jet, the ARJ21, has safely completed more than 8 million passenger trips in 134 cities as of August, she added.